FAA decision is key step to return high-tech 787 jet to service after 3-month grounding

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner won U.S. approval to return to service with a redesigned lithium-ion battery, more than three months into the government’s longest grounding of a commercial model in the jet age.

Airlines will get instructions next week on how to modify their planes, along with the final directive allowing high-tech 787s to fly, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday. The jet will still be allowed to travel as far as 180 minutes from the nearest airport, enabling it to be used on over-ocean routes, said Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman.

The FAA’s decision will allow the Dreamliner’s eight current operators to restart flights over the next several weeks as the plane’s lithium-ion batteries are replaced and pilots recertified.

That’s good news for San Diego, which introduced new nonstop service to Japan just a month before the FAA grounded the Dreamliner aircraft that was being used for the Japan Airlines flights. The service eventually resumed, but on a much more limited schedule and on larger 777 planes.

“We are happy to hear the FAA has approved the changes that will allow the 787 to return to service,” Katie Jones of the San Diego Airport Authority said Friday. “We understand that it will take some time to complete the modifications and don’t yet know at this time when the aircraft will once again serve San Diego.”

When San Diego’s new route to Tokyo debuted in early December, the plan was for four flights a week, transitioning to daily service in March. Since March 31, Japan Airlines has been flying just three times a week — Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

“The airline will start preparations for 787 services after the approval from Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau has been announced,” said JAL spokeswoman Carol Anderson.

The action all but ends a grounding that has cost Boeing an estimated $600 million, halted deliveries and forced some airlines to lease alternative aircraft. Several airlines have said they will seek compensation from Boeing, potentially adding to the plane maker’s losses.

With the latest FAA approval, Chicago-based Boeing also will be able to resume deliveries, a pivotal step because it gets large payments when aircraft are handed over.

Richard Aboulafia, aviation analyst at Teal Group, a Fairfax, Va.-based consultant that has done work for Boeing, said the jet maker could still run into problems with other international aviation regulators and the NTSB, which is holding a hearing on the battery issues next week. “They’re not out of the woods yet, but this is a big step,” he said. Boeing had expected to spend about $4 billion to $5 billion on the new composite plane, but the cost was now closer to $20 billion, he said.

Neither the FAA nor the National Transportation Safety Board has determined what caused the battery faults that sparked a Jan. 7 fire on a Japan Airlines 787 in Boston and forced an emergency landing by an ANA Holdings jet in Japan nine days later.

The reworked battery includes more protection around the cells to contain overheating, a steel case to prevent any fire from spreading and a tube that vents fumes outside the fuselage.